Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A perfect plan.
A crystal clear vision.
Here's why this was wrong --
The truth is, even the best musicians out there have to start SOMEWHERE. And oftentimes, that "somewhere" is not a perfectly formed plan.
In fact, forcing yourself to have it all figured out from the start can limit your creativity and close you off to the magic of discovery and experimentation.
Embracing the mess (or what I like to call "imperfect action") can be scary at first -- but it can also lead to music that is beautiful, unexpected, entirely unique.
Here are my top 10 favorite ways of starting a new piece of music (all of which are completely imperfect and messy):
1) Trying to create a specific sound I imagine (and being open to whatever happens)
2) Creating a sound by accident that I love and following it
3) Taking a walk in the forest
4) Scribbling pages of nonsense in my notebook
5) Recording a voice memo to myself with sounds or ideas
6) Improvising until something jumps out at me
7) Recording a patch even though I think it sucks, then coming back to rework it later
8) Researching something completely unrelated to music, like time dilation or butterfly wings
9) Tossing 3 random samples from my hard drive into Ableton and seeing what they sound like together
10) Having a deep conversation with a friend
Save this to come back to it later, and comment below if you have anything you would add to this list!
A perfect plan.
A crystal clear vision.
Here's why this was wrong --
The truth is, even the best musicians out there have to start SOMEWHERE. And oftentimes, that "somewhere" is not a perfectly formed plan.
In fact, forcing yourself to have it all figured out from the start can limit your creativity and close you off to the magic of discovery and experimentation.
Embracing the mess (or what I like to call "imperfect action") can be scary at first -- but it can also lead to music that is beautiful, unexpected, entirely unique.
Here are my top 10 favorite ways of starting a new piece of music (all of which are completely imperfect and messy):
1) Trying to create a specific sound I imagine (and being open to whatever happens)
2) Creating a sound by accident that I love and following it
3) Taking a walk in the forest
4) Scribbling pages of nonsense in my notebook
5) Recording a voice memo to myself with sounds or ideas
6) Improvising until something jumps out at me
7) Recording a patch even though I think it sucks, then coming back to rework it later
8) Researching something completely unrelated to music, like time dilation or butterfly wings
9) Tossing 3 random samples from my hard drive into Ableton and seeing what they sound like together
10) Having a deep conversation with a friend
Save this to come back to it later, and comment below if you have anything you would add to this list!
